I’ve been grinding away at getting the Kickstarter graphics all done, and now I’ve finally done that. Hooray! It took a long, long time since I had to balance that with school, plus another website I’m building on the side, but damn if they didn’t turn out purdy.

The big news is that the Kickstarter is starting on Tuesday at midnight, and that we’re super excited to get these babies in the hands of all you DAREDEVILERS out there. Danilo and Fonografiks knocked the cover out of the park, the dot colors and faux aging are stunning. Everything is looking good.

So I thought I’d take a moment here and thank everyone for their support over the years. We’ve really enjoyed bringing the DAREDEVILS to you every Tuesday for the last two years, and this is the culmination of all that hard work. But we couldn’t do it without our readers. You loyal DAREDEVILERS are the best, so get yo’self a copy of Secret of the Beaufort Sea on Tuesday!

Let’s talk about the current story and where we’re at. Since I last blogged about it, the DAREDEVILS buried McGinty, Deveraux quit the band, Doc and the Preacher got drunk and quibbled over philosophy, a wise Kaj Perean begged Doc to help his people with a problem that will surely wipe them out and Doc said no(harsh), Joe got abducted by a girl and then she punched him in the face and ran away, and then the Captain in a sign of respect for dead McGinty fired up some green flares into the sky at the same time the Bear Idol went missing. THAT is a lot of story in just 10 pages.

We’re a third of the way through End(s) of the Earth(s) now and there are a bunch of wheels turning. The devastation that Dracula caused the DAREDEVILS is really coming to the forefront now. Doc is swerving away from adventure, Deveraux is unable to wear the DDD patch (AVAILABLE AS A KICKSTARTER BACKER REWARD!) because of the guilt he feels, and Joe… Well Joe was in the dumps but now he’s doing is usual thing of running ass first into adventure. Cup is being a dog.

That Timegataj prophecy that the doomsayer was doomsaying about seems to be coming true. I bet you didn’t see that coming. Smiley, winky.

This week, more than ever we need you to share our Facebook posts and retweet Matt’s tweetings and like us and follow us and get other people to so it too. We’re confident that we can get this Kickstarter funded, but we need all the help we can get to get this baby into your hands. We’re not looking to get rich off this publishing (its the movie rights that’ll make us rich!), we’re looking to get DAREDEVILS like yourself a real paper copy of our work because we love making comics. It took a long time to get here. Lets make it count!

There really isn’t much to say about it. I used the same minimalist style I did with the last two, and created an image that I think people will be able too look back on and understand why it was chosen. I wanted it to be kind of barren, void of much going on, because that’s how the DAREDEVILS are feeling right now. A major character died at the end of Pitch Black Day, and now what will happen? The future for the guys in orange is an open canvas, and it is bleak and empty.

I also wanted a strong edge in the picture, so I added that orange bar. I chose orange because the DAREDEVILS are orange. The edge plays off the “ends” part of the title and the s’s are hanging over because the official title is End(s) of the Earth(s). Enigmatic! Just why are they in parenthesis? Why are the cover’s s’s separate from the rest of the design? Find out by reading the comic, dude. I’m not telling.

Also there is my minimalist volcano in there, so there will probably be a volcano in the story somewhere. Spoiler alert.

This story isn’t like Pitch Black Day, but it DEALS with Pitch Black Day and it is completely dependent on it for its storytelling. You need to be caught up to get whats going on in this one, where the others you could pretty much pick up and get. We’re at a point here where we feel comfortable doing this. We’re two years in, and its time to start telling some more hefty stories.

Also the members page is going away, but the content will be there, just without the membership wall. It was a noble idea, but it was one that we were unprepared to support and just didn’t have the right amount of time in our lives for. But we’re still proud of the work that went into it, so the content will all be there for those who care to dive a bit deeper.

But for real, THANK YOU for reading this dumb blog, and thank all you DAREDEVILERS who read our dumb comic. We work hard as hell on this stuff, and we LOVE IT when you make comments or RSS us, or follow us on Facebook or Twitter. Its the best, because this is hard to do. Oh it ain’t easy. It isn’t just three dudes that see eye to eye on stuff , it is three dudes who love to tell each other that they just had a dumb idea. Believe me, I love it when Matt has a good idea, i get TURNT UP. But when Matt has a bad idea, I like it even more. Because then I can tell him how stupid he is, and THAT is why I get up everyday. To make Matt feel like shit about himself.

I don’t have much to write about, there is only one page and the last page really does not need to be explained or joked about. The next page is the last one for the story, and it was a pain in the ass to make, and I’m glad the backmatter is over.

Lets relax with some swatches of Matt’s favorite color, and get ready to be reenergized in 2 weeks, when Ends of the Earths starts.

That’s the Lunch for 6/29

To the Future,

Evin

Ok fine. Lets discuss what happened on the last page. Well Doc brings up Incident #1, the very first DAREDEVILs adventure, how is what happened here in Subsylvania similar to that at all? And is Doc just being super dramatic with the whole “Maybe I shouldn’t even BE here ” stuff?

He is for sure, but just what is he talking about? Will we see Incident #1? Not yet. The last part of the report details exactly where the DAREDEVILS have set sail for. A small island in the Pacific called Kaj Pereo. That name won’t mean anything to you yet, but just wait, it is on those sandy beaches that the DAREDEVILS will… well, you’ll see.

I tried to be sly about putting that pic of Abigail and having the two other little Abigail stuffs poking out from underneath the Manila envelope. Maybe that part fits right in with the Doc having stimulating convos with her over drinks. Maybe somebody is a bit smitten. GET IT? BIT! Because vampires, dude. Yeah, now you get it. No but seriously, the rest of the report is very facty fact fact, and this was softer.

So where do we go from here? If you are expecting the DAREDEVILS to return to action as if this kind of thing is standard operating procedure, you’re wrong. They won’t. We’ll get a glimpse of this come Tuesday when the Epilogue starts. In fact, we’ll get a glimpse into the wider DAREDEVIL universe unlike ever before. Everything that happened with the DAREDEVILS up until that last page was the prologue to how the DAREDEVILS will be remembered when its all said and done.

Tuesday, we begin down this road with a bit of backmatter that will answer a ton of questions that have been buzzing about in the comments. It will also blow open new mysteries. For real. Hold on to your potatoes.

Next Tuesday we’ll put the lid of Pitch Black Day for good. Its the end end! Then you get the cover for Ends of the Earths (which I made), then you get a brand new adventure by Smilton! This one is THREE TIMES the size of his last adventure! It is also massively important to the overall DAREDEVILS story. Cajun Caper was a fill in, and some readers might dismiss it, but you’ll be amazed just how important that one was to the main story as well.

I guess I could let you in on a few secrets from the next storyline… The next story involves 5 McGintys that show up aboard the Custer. A young one, a robot one, an African American one made of steel, one with a mullet and sunglasses, and a woman one with mondo boobs. It is set in feudal Japan, and they have a tournament to see who gets to be McGinty. During this tournament, Martians invade the arena and the 5 must band together to defeat them. In the end they group hug and reunite as the real McGinty, who then gets into a spacecar and flies away forever.

Its comicon again, as just like last year at San Diego (we’re not going this year), I have some problems with what the once wonderful event has degenerated into.

I heard a couple wandering though the show floor on Friday comment to each other “There really isn’t a lot of comics here, huh?” Huh indeed. There isn’t. In fact, I would argue that comic books are one of the smallest things happening there. Yes, there is still Artist alley, thankfully! And there are the obligitory booths where you can get stuff CGC rated or buy vintage books at 30% off! But I saw Chris Claremont, the legend, his greatness, the guy that made Days of Future Past sitting in a booth and NO ONE gave a shit. He was completely available, it was heartbreaking. 50 feet away from him, some manga voice actor had a line 150 people long.

I don’t hate manga. It totally sucks completely, but I don’t hate it. Ok, I do. Its the worst. Frottage level. I don’t have a point here, I’m just peeved that that dude beat Claremont 150 – 0.

Cosplay is fine because I get to letch terts, and that is one of my favoritest things in the world. There is SO MUCH cosplay nowadays though that its impossible for me to believe that these guys and gals are really here for comicbook stuff. They have to just be here to preen, right? Its not like the guy in the giant Minecraft Riker outfit is going to browse a booth, he’s too busy being IN THE FUCKING WAY. Is this my problem alone? Maybe cosplay isn’t that bad? I’m so conflicted. One one hand I really enjoy the lechery aspect of it, but on the other hand I think it dilutes the experience from what it was, at worst it might actually change the chemical compound so much that its not even the same thing any more at all. A better name would be pop-culture con. If it was pop-culture con then every other dude with cat ears wouldn’t bother me so much.

Also, what the f-u-c crooked letter is up with all these guys wearing regular clothes and then just cat ears? Are you a sorority girl on Haloween? Is that your cosplay? Because if so then ok. I’ll buy it. But you’re not. You’re some manga again, right? You can’t just put cat ears on and call it a day. That should be a rule. That’s going to be my sig on the ihatemanga.com forums.

I went on Friday and I’m going again today. Friday because Matt brought his daughter and precious memories -yadda yadda- she had just as much fun looking at the trash cans as she did looking at the furries. And today because my fiance wanted to see what the hubub was about (it will be a similar experience). It is 35 bucks a day now! 4 years ago it was less than 20. But the attendance has skyrocketed since then, so I have to be happy about that (other than for the above stated reason, because I’m not happy about those). I also wanted to get Danny Glover’s signature on something. I’ll post what I got later, its going to be awesome if he plays ball, if not, then its just another celeb that shot my awesome idea down and I’m left just sitting there like a dick. Billy Dee Williams did this to me when I asked him to sign a Colt 45 ad “To Evin, the second baddest brother in the galaxy.” Did not go over well. I also hurt Brent Spiner by punching his fist too hard during a fistbump. ”Ow, not so hard!” he said. ”I guess I’m used to the idea that you’re a robot.” my response.

So really, the great irony of my rants and raves is that I’M NOT EVEN GOING FOR COMICBOOKS! I’m going to have Sgt. Murtaugh sign a Magic: the Gathering card! Holy shit I’m just like them, the manga people, the cosplayers, the steampunkers! I’m just a signature hound! I’m better than the steampunkers, though. Fuck them. What the fuck is steam punk? Oh, you dress like the old west but you have a 15 foot tall gun? Oh, you glued fabric gears to your top hat!? Oh, you are dressed like a Victorian aged lady of the night with your goggles and your super tight corset and your cleavage completely expo what I meant to say is, I’m not better than anyone else. I’m also ruining comicon for the true believers.

Shit.

This week’s page was a resolution of sorts. Everyone is safe, Doc is back to normal, and Abigail wants to bang Doc. Cup is mad though, and will probably poop in the corner of Doc’s stateroom and by the time Doc find it, it will be hard as a rock and stuck into the carpet on a molecular level. Thats what my dogs to to me and they love me more than anything else in the whole wide world, so just imagine what Cup is capable of.

Next week, the end really begins. Only two pages remain in Pitch Day, it’s time to get serious.

And so all that remains is the denouement. The DAREDEVILS have triumphed over evil, yet again! Doc reverting to human has brought up some questions though. Were we really playing by Lost Boy rules? He drank blood but he never killed anyone, does that matter in Deep Dive Daredevils lore? The real questions are “why are the new Spiderman movies so terrible?” and “Whoa! Did Days of Future Past just erase the whole X-Men movie franchise?!” There are real problems to worry about, not vampire semantics.

Fine. We did just take you on a year long descent into the dark world of Dracula, we can talk about it a little. Doc will be really affected by what happened to him, we’re not letting him off the hook like on some cop show where a character goes through some horrible ordeal, shoots 8 guys and then next week is back to having donuts like no big deal. What happened to Doc is a really big deal. Almost killing the planet is hard to get over, and it might drudge up some past issues he might not have gotten over. Killing the world is some heavy stuff.

Also, now that Abigail has completed her mission and avenged her grandfather, what are her plans? Well, we’ll find out in one final backmatter after the conclusion of the comic. The brass at SISX didn’t have much faith in her surviving the Dracula ordeal, but they made it pretty clear how they would deal with her if she were to ever emerge from the depths alive.

Matt let the title for the next DAREDEVILS story slip, against my wishes. But whatever. I guess its cool. So since the cat is out of the bag about that, I’ll just leave this right here:

Hell yeah! Another Evin Dempsey original cover! Everyone loves those. I know. I’m posting it really small here so when we post it on the blotter you’ll still have something to ooh and ahh over. Until then, let this satiate your thirst for more Dempsey originals!

No matter how hard I try to make the world’s best cover, I can’t possibly do it. It has already been done.

Funny story about my best work… I’ve been looking for some freelance work recently to get some extra income (wedding billz) and I turned in my portfolio to a freelance placer. She looked over my stuff and said “So, all you do is make stuff look old?” Well, yeah. But I’m like… the best at it. She was not amused. ”Do you do anything with social media?” Yeah, every week. I make old looking Radiograms for our followers. ”mmmhmm…. old looking.” It went on like that for awhile. Anyway. No jobs yet but fingers crossed. Wait, that story wasn’t funny it was sad because I’ve wasted my time with all this pastiche work when I should have been making modern stuff with white font over a washed out picture! Fuck me.

Just three pages remain in Pitch Black Day! I’m not going to give any hints about it though, because who wants to have their end story ruined? Not me. Instead I’ll tell you whats up for next weekend. Comicon! Thats right, it is the PHX comicon and we are going at least one day. If you’re there and you want to meet us, just leave me or Matt a twitter message. DON’T MURDER US. That is the number one rule for meeting us. Matt has two kids, so if you have to murder one of us, have it be him. He’s dead already.

Docula is not shitting you. If you crack wise during his monologue he will pop your peeper.

This page, one of the final pages of Pitch Black Day was the cause of an interesting fight. I wanted Doc to spout off personal stuff about Joe, hinting at his origin. When I originally wrote the scene I wanted Doc to say stuff that would be deemed “unforgivable” and I thought that dropping a hint at Joe’s mysterious past was a way into that. Matt and Dan thought otherwise though, and for a good reason. There is so much going on already in Pitch Black Day, that throwing in something that we couldn’t possibly get to for what amounts to maybe years isn’t the right thing to do at the end of a story that (We think) has a very satisfying ending. Its true, in all of our previous stories we’ve left a trail a breadcrumbs to our larger universe, but ultimately it was decided to do that in a different way at the end of this story. You’ll see.

The split between larger universe and single story is one that cuts deep between the writing team. I always, every time will side with building up the larger universe while Matt and for the most part Dan will side with the importance of keeping a tight single story. Up until this point we’ve focused almost entirely on the story we’re telling, and only in the very final moments (the part in Beaufort where the Captain wonders if THEY detected the particle signature, or the part in Cajun Caper where we learn that the Captain fought for the South) did we give any thought to the bigger picture. I find this frustrating, especially since we tell our stories at such a glacial pace.

Pitch Black Day represents a couple things. It is a darkening of the tone of the DAREDEVILS (not that it can’t undarken later), and it is a transition from the single stories to the larger universe. The things that will take place and that have already taken place in this story will forever affect every story that comes after it. There will be things you read in future episodes that will (hopefully) make you flip back to Pitch Black Day and say “Whoa, they had this all planned out.” We do. For the most part.

Speaking about this large universe is something I want to do so badly, but it just isn’t time yet. Instead I’ll talk about the larger universe we created within the Pitch Black Day story itself.

Talk about going big, right? There are so many large and small things in this story that add to the big picture. For instance – SISX was created as a way of getting Abigail aboard the sub. We knew she was British, so we needed her to be a part of their system of doing things. She is our James Bond fill-in, so it made sense to make the part of the system she is a part of the same as James Bond. If you were wondering, yes, making her a part of MI10 (X) instead of MI6 was our little nod to the X Files. After we discovered that Dracula was our big bad, we went on to include the Dracula prose as a way of expanding the universe by co-opting a preestablished one. Now everything that happened in that story also happened in ours, and we were able to expand that and bring in the Holmwood saga.

To add depth to the universe we had created so far, we gave life to and took life from Abigail’s adopted mom (after we did the same to her real mom). This was one of the best parts of the backmatter for me. Spending thoughtful time humanizing her was rewarding as a storyteller. Inventing a person from thin air and getting someone to give a shit about them is a pretty cool feeling.

Here at the end of the story, we’re going to back to our breadcrumb tricks (you’ll see), but we have a couple new tricks up our sleeve as well. NEXT WEEK we find out the source of the agonized scream, and we settle a lot of things in the same graceful gesture. There are only a few more pages left DAREDEVILERS, and they all count. Also there is an Epilogue.

Part two of the two page splash gives us a good look at the result of Dracula’s curse. Doc has become powermad and will stop at nothing less than total global annihilation. Thanks a lot guys. The DAREDEVILS mean well, but every now and then they unleash an diabolical crazy man on the world. At least they stopped the rocket, right?

If you want a glimpse into what will happen next, you should dig back into the backmatter. It tells you pretty flat out. Where in the backmatter? Nuh uh, not going to tell you. Read it. We wrote it and its really good. You’ll like it.

Pitch Black Day is coming to an end, it seems like forever since we started it, but time marches on. Who would have thought that a story that started off so innocently with a naked lady would end up here? I can’t wait to show everyone the end.

Real talk. Facebook has been kind of a disappointment for us as far as the DAREDEVILS are concerned. We’ve been a thing for over two years and we have 199 likes. This is way below my personal expectations. Some posts only 40 or so people even see what we put. The way that Facebook restricts your reach to about 1/3 of your likes is nuts. YOu have to pay for 100% reach, something we can’t really afford to do. We’ve tried to pay for reach before, and 5 bucks will get us seen by about 1000 people, but the views aren’t quality at all. They usually only result in 20 or so link clicks, and so far only 2 people have liked the page because of it.

I put a fair amount of work into Facebook. I make a Radiogram every week and post it. I use a real typewriter to make it, and then scan it in and do a bunch of photoshop stuff to it. It takes less work than it used to to make, and they look way better than they did when I started. The truth is that I use these Radiograms (and the Lunch headers) to learn how to use Photoshop better, but it would still be great if we were getting some sort of benefit to advertising our comic there.

I’m not saying I’m going to stop making the Radiograms. Hell no. They are a part of the DAREDEVILS experience, and a fair amount of people do see them when Matt retweets them on his twitter account. I’m simply complaining about not being a huge Facebook success. I have a friend who has some sort of business where she sells shakes that make you lose weight, and she started it about the same time as us and she has way over 1000 likes already. She posts pictures of herself in a bikini though. Holy shit. I just realized that comics aren’t as interesting as titties. Never mind the last three paragraphs.

Don’t fret though. Our readership is up. It has been solid the last year now, holding steady for the most part, but over the last two months it has risen a good amount. About a year ago we lost a bunch of hits when we stopped advertising, but that was expected. Project Wonderful, the place that you use to advertise on other webcomics, really did work for us. We were getting lots of traffic, but the cost wasn’t sustainable. We just couldn’t keep it up forever. It did leave us with a strong readerbase though, and those number have never dipped meaningfully. That being said, we’re going to ramp up advertising again soon.

Why? Well I can’t tell you just yet, but when I do it won’t be a big surprise. We’re proud of the DAREDEVILS, and we want more people to see them. Hopefully if we can pull off what we are trying to pull off, a bunch more will.

Let’s talk about next page though, enough with all this behind the scenes stuff that you probably hate. We’re going to see a Saxon tart beg, We’re going to see the full scope of Docula’s rage, and we’re going to see Dracula’s flaming skeleton a bunch of times. Next week on the Lunch I have a story about the massive fight we had over the next page. It’ll be fun.

We’re aware that our comic exists in the digital world only right now, and so making a double page splash makes no sense considering that we release one page a week and can only show one page at a time given the constraints of our website. Right?

In reality, we can really only show type of thing given the further restraints we’ve put on ourselves in the form of the blotter. The last time something like this came up was with all the backmatters. Since the picture layer on the website is under the blotter corner layer, if I ventured into that space, the blotter corner would cover it and ruin the illusion we were trying to create. That would be the bunkest, because illusion is our business, sukka. Belie’ dat.

So anyway, it makes no sense to do a double page splash. *In the digital world*. But WHAT IF, my dear DAREDEVILERS, WHAT IF the DAREDEVILS weren’t always just pixels on your screen? What if they were in a real comic book? What then?

I was just asking because I don’t know. I suspect it would be pretty cool, I guess.

So the blippidee blip part of the page was the rocket failing (McGinty!), and then Dracula throws a fit about it. Originally we had him doing a big soliloquy here and lament his failure. This scene could have had more breathing room if we wanted to play out the tension of the rocket ascension, but we felt that the stabbing of Drac was the important thing. The fact is, we’re super far into the story now, and its not really fair to drag readers along on flights of fancy that might look cool, or have nifty turns of phrases, but would ultimately slow the story down and ruin the pace.

Pace is what the DAREDEVILS are all about. When we do our script read-throughs, we make sure every page is either revealing something new, reacting to something amazing, moving the story forward in an interesting way, or a cliff hanger that begs the reader to turn dat page. Usually it is a combo of cliff hanger and one of the other three, but it has to at least be one of those for us to accept it as a DAREDEVILS page. The see this all too often when I look at other web comics (that all have way more votes than us on Top Webcomics than us? c’mon people!) is that they will be content to have a page with none of those things. But they usually have a fox woman with furry, pert boobs, so what do we know?

Figuring out what will make people read your comic is hard. Hell, I get good hits on this blog but a ton of them are just people looking for pictures of The Rock. All we can do is put out shit we’re proud of week in and week out.

Speaking of goodness, you have to be there on Tuesday when the second part of this page drops, its super awesome. Danilo really outdid himself, and we’re sad that he won’t be returning to the Daredevils until 2015. Smilton is doing the next book and it should be around 30 pages. We’re just a few weeks away from telling everyone the details on his run, so stay tuned.

So, some mental warfare is being waged in the bowels of Dracula’s castle. First off Drac is being a dick to Doc, and that’s not cool. He just helped you shoot a missile up in the air that will wipe out humanity, have some gratitude. Then we have Joe talking mad trash to Docula, telling him that he’s a second banana and what not. And finally we have Doc get an idea, and instead of thanking Joe, he says he’s going to cut him open? Jeez. Drama.

In other news, we just got the final page of Pitch Black Day from Danilo today, and it is bittersweet because even though it is awesome, it’s the last time we’ll work with him for a while. Smilton will draw the next installment of the DAREDEVILS, and that run should be about half a year or so, but after that we’re not sure who will pick up the pen. Hopefully we can get Danilo to do more work with us in the future, as we really feel like he is part of the team, and almost totally why we’re successful with the DAREDEVILS. As the ending of Pitch Black Day is still very much a surprise, I can’t say any more about the future stories. Except all the art Smilton has turned in so far has been great.

Today is also the rematch of the Pizza Eating Contest that Matt and I got into two years ago. He beat me last time, but this time I’m going to win. All week he’s been trash talking, but its all for nothing. I will have the glory this time. GLORY. If Matt wins its because he cheated somehow.

We’re in the planning stages of some pretty cool site overhauls during the summer. Hopefully we’ll be able to roll out new archive pages that have the whole table of contents on one page, while adding some pizzaz to the layout. We’ve got some good ideas, but implementing them will take more time than we have right now. Summer time is when we’ll really get to work.

Dan and I are hard at work on another project right now, but it will probably never see any kind of mass release. If it does though you’ll be the first to get it. ”It” is the first video game we’ve ever tried to make. The working title is Potato, Pedal, Jacket, Mask and it is pretty fun so far. hopefully we’ll figure out the kinks though and get it published for the web.

Another funny thing happened to me on Twitter. I barely ever tweet, because its super extra stupid, but the other day I felt compelled when I learned of the JuggaloCoin, which is the Insane Clown Posse’s version of the BitCoin. I guess anyone can have a coin if they want. So I posted something about it sarcastically and now everyone involved with the project followed me and retweeted it. So I guess what I’m trying to say is, JuggaloCoin, what’s in YOUR eWallet, or whatever its called?